Figure 1.--This painting of the Prince of Wales in 1846 helped introduce the sailor suit as an appropriate outfit for children. The painting by Winterhalter was a Christmas present from Prince Albert to Victoria. |
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Few garments are more associated with boyswear than the sailor suit. While no longer commonly worn, the sailor suit was worn by boys in Europe and America for a century. The origins of the boys' sailor suit or vague. Apparently it was in England during the first quarter of the 19th century when someone had the inspiration that boys should wear sailors' trousers. (Some sources suggest an even earlier appearance of the sailor suit as boys' atire, but as yet I cannot confirm that.) It is not known who first conceived of the idea. It is known with certainty, however, who popularized it--Queen Victoria. It was a clevely designed effort to associate the monarchy which had declined in popularity with the most popular institution in Britain--The Royal Navy. The result was a stunning success for the monarchy and a fashion that dominted boyswear like no other style for a century.
The origins of the boys' sailor suit or vague. Apparently it was in England during the first quarter of the 19th century when someone had the inspiration that boys should wear sailors' trousers. (Some sources suggest an even earlier appearance of the sailor suit as
boys' atire, but as yet I cannot confirm that.) It is not known who first coceived of the idea. It is known with certainty, however, who popularized it. It was Queen Victoria who began to dress the young princes in sailor suits during the 1840s. The 5-year old Prince of Wales (the future Edward VII) was not the first English boy to wear a sailor suit. It was, however, when in 1846 the prince's portrait was painted onboard the royal yacht during the Queen's visit to Ireland that the sailor suit began to attract the interest of English mothers and eventually mothers around the world. The prince wore a scaled down version of a real Royal Navy uniform. The uniform was arefully chosen to be an enlisted man's sailor suit. This can not have been an acident. It was almost certainly a carefully chosen decision calculated to give a favorable impression of the monarchy to the British people. Unfortunately HBC does not yet have details on precisely how the uniform was selected. The sailor suit was not, however, an immediate success as a style for children. For several decades relativey few English boys wore sailor suits. It was
not until the 1860s that increasing numbers of BEnglish boys were wearing them. By the 1880s, the sailor suit was widely worn by children, both boys and girls. Few English boys grew up by this time without wearing a sailor suit. Some boys wore practically nothing but sailor suits.
The Royal Navy was founded by Henry VIII in the 16th century and four the next four centuries has played a central role in modern history. It is no exageration to say that Royal Navy was the critical force in the creation of the modern world. The Royal Navy is common seen as an instrument of British colonialism and the suppression of many Asian and african peoples. This is certainly true. It is also true that the Royal Navy helped establish the modern world trading system. It broke up the closed international system established by Spain and Portugal and replaced it with a much more open system. The Royal Navy impact on the modern world is extensive and pervasive. The Royal Navy chartered sea lanes around the world. There are few ports and sea coasts that have not been touched in some way by the Royal Navy. The Royal Navy played an important role in the Indistrial Revolution. It helped to defeat series of opponents for the most part countries goverened by authoritarian or dictatorial rulers (Philip II, Louis XIV, Napoleon, Kaiser Wilhelm II, and Hitler). Thus the Royal Navy played a key role in establishing parlimentary democracies in the modern world. It was the Royal Navy that ended the slave trade. Although the Royal Navy played a major role in the Revolutionary war, it is also true that for much of the early history, the Royal Navy provided a shield from European interference behind which the American Republic developed. The prestige of the Royal Navy by the 19th century was such that the uniform of the British enlisted sailor became a standard outfit not only for British boys, but also for boys throughout Europe and North America.
The sailor suit is essentially a Victorian style. Sailor suits as outfits for boys appeared first in the mid-19th century. Some reports suggest that boys may have worn sailor suits in the early 19th century. We can not yet confirm this. We do know who popularized the sailor suit. It was the British royal family. The Royal Family chose a copy of a Royal Navy uniform--astutely an enlisted uniform. Many other parents purchasing a sailor suit or their children chose much more imaginative designs. Gradually as the sailor suit grew in popularity the styling became more standadized on actual uniforms. This varied somewhat by country as did the age of the children wearing sailor suits. The sailor suit was a first only for boys. Girls gradually began wearing dresses with sailor styling and eventually sailor suits as well. The sailor suit persisted as a popular style for boys in Britain until after World War I.
The initial English sailor suits for boys had traditional styling meaning they were minature reproduction od the uniforms weorn by Royal Nasvy enlisted men. As the style began to become a popular style for boys a variety of more styilized creations appeared in the late 19th century. Many diverged significantly from traditionl styling, but for the most part were instantly recognizable as sailor suits. These more creative versions came in many different styles. Designers also played with the standard blue and white colors, but this is difficult to onserve in the black and white photography of te day. Some retained the "V" front and back flap, but some even played with these basic sailor features. Traditional styling never disappeared and gradually by the turn of the 20th century was the dominant style. Thus in the 20th century most English sailor suits were made with traditional styling.
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Quite a range of garments were made with sailor styling. Some are a little difficult to classify. There were many different styles of sailor headwear. We note boys wearing sailor headwear with many diffeent outfits and not just sailor outfits. The two basic sailor suit garments were the middy blouse and trousers. Middy blouses were pull-over garments. We also note button-up tops. This inclides both blouses and jackets. The first trousers worn with the sailor suit were the bell-botton trousers worn by British sailors. Gradually as kneepants and knickers became common for boys to wear, many boys began wearing these sortened pants with middy blouses as well. There were many other sailor garments such as Jack Tar suits, reffer jackets, sailor tunics, and square cut blouses all of which were done in a wide range of styles. And there were dresses and skirts done with sailor styling for both younger boys and girls of all ages.
Sailor suits were made in a range of materials. This reflected the cost, purpose, and seasonality. The middy blouse and pants might be done in different fabrics. This was particulrly true of summer suits. Most summer suits were made in various cotton frabics as were play suits. One popular fabric was galatea, a strong twill-weave cotton fabric. It could be striped or plain. It was named after the Rotal Navy man-of-war HMS Galatea It was afabric paryticuilarly noted for use in sailor suits, I think both Royal Navy uniforms and children's sailor suits. A little more expensive sailor suit might be made in linen--especially the blouse. Winter suits were more likely to be made in wool fabrics like serge. More expensive dressy sailor suits might be made in velvet. It is difficult to assess the specific fabric from ohotographic images. An exception here is velvet.
It was Queen Victoria's sons who first wore sailor suits. The style was initially one for boys. Queen Victoria did not dress her daughters in sailor suits. We are not sure when the sailor suit first became a popular style for girls as well. We known that the Prince of Wales and Princess Alexandra dressed their daughters in dresses with sailor styling in the 1860s-70s. They may well have been some of the first girls to wear dresses with sailor stylinng. We begin to see girls more commonly wearing sailor dresses in the 1880s, including dresses with traditional sailor styling--not just elements of sailor styling in their dresses. By the 1890s we see whole families wearing sailor outfits, sometimes coordinated outfits. Many brothers and sisters wore identical middy blouses with the boys wearing pants and the girls skirts. Sometimes the headwear was also identical.
Most of the photographs we have found of British boys are individual portraits or family portraits with the younger boys wearing sailor suits. Some portraits show the entire family dressed in sailor suits, in some cases even the girls. What is very rare is any kind of non-family group portrait of boys wearing sailor suits. We do note some of the younger boys at schools wearing sailor suits, but these are not uniforms, just sailor suits there mothers have chosen. This is easily observable because the sailor suits the boys wear are all different. We have found a few images of boys wearing uniform ailor suits. We have not, however, been able to determine just what the group was. Similar ages show that they are not family groups. A school group is possible, but we have yet to find a verifiable school group with the boys dressed in sailor suits.
Here we will incluse personal accounts we find as well as individual pages we have loaded whether or not we have biographical information. These personal accounts are rather limited at this time, but we hope to add more as HBC develops.
The Shepards (The 1890s)
Unidentified violinist (1914)
A HBC contributor notes that the biography of a famous British dancer/choreographer Frederick Ashton should be consulted. Frederick and his brother wore sailor suits as a boy. While British he was born in Ecuador. I hope to find the book.
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